A significant portion of the hydrocarbons, present in the crust of the earth, are found in the tar sands of the world. In order to extract the products normally obtained from petroleum crude from the tar sands, it is necessary to separate the hydrocarbons of the tar sands from the sands, to reduce the sulfur and nitrogen content of the separated hydrocarbons and to upgrade the separated hydrocarbons by increasing their hydrogen content to that of light petroleum crude.
The primary object of the process of this invention is to hydrogenate the hydrocarbons of the tar sands to allow a moderate temperature distillation of hydrocarbons from tar sands.
Another object of this invention is to reduce the sulfur and nitrogen content of hydrocarbons as they are distilled from tar sands.
A further object of the process of this invention is to achieve the above object in an economic manner.